"A California county has seen a surge in Republican registration in 2012, but the newRepublicans had no idea they changed party affiliation.

"According to a report by The Press-Enterprise in California, Republican registration in Riverside county increased by nearly 35,000 voters, overtaking the advantage once held by Democrats. The newspaper contacted 350 random registered voters, with 30 of them telling their story of having their party changed without their consent or knowledge. The party affiliation change seems to have happened when workers gathered signatures by doing door knocking and standing outside stores asking people to sign petitions against animal cruelty, lower gas prices and other causes.

"California Watch reports that Democrats have filed a complaint with the county registrar of voters, presenting affidavits from over 130 voters who had their party affiliation switched from Democrat to Republican. A spokesman for the Democratic Party, Steve Mavigilo, is blaming the Golden State Voter Participation Project, a Republican registration group. The top donor for the Golden State Voter Participation Project is Republican activist, Charles Munger Jr, who gave over $240,000 to the project over the first six months of the year."

"Documents from a recent Romney poll watcher training obtained by ThinkProgress contain several misleading or untrue claims about the rights of Wisconsin voters. A source passed along the following packet of documents, which was distributed to volunteers at a Romney campaign training in Racine on October 25th. In total, eight such trainings were held across the state in the past two weeks and 17 since late September.

"One blatant falsehood occurs on page 5 of the training packet, which informed poll watchers that any 'person [who] has been convicted of treason, a felony, or bribery' isn’t eligible to vote. This is not true. Once a Wisconsin voter who has been convicted of a felony completes his or her sentence, that person is once again eligible to vote."Here are four misleading or incorrect pieces of information distributed by the Romney campaign:

"CLAIM: Any 'person [who] has been convicted of treason, a felony, or bribery' isn’t eligible to vote. (Page 5)

"FACT: Once a person who has been convicted of a felony completes his or her sentence, including probation and fines, that person is eligible to vote.

"FACT: The list used is incomplete. There are many other documents people can use to prove residency that are not included, such as letters from public schools, student loan papers, correspondence with a Native American tribe in Wisconsin, vehicle registration, and food stamp correspondances. In addition, the list fails to mention that homeless voters may use an affidavit from a public or private social service agency as proof of residency.

"CLAIM: 'If a handicapped voter is unable to come into the polls to vote, an assistant can deliver the ballot to the voter if the CEI verifies the elector’s proof of residency.' (Page 10)

"FACT: Under Wisconsin law, the CEI (Chief Election Inspector) does not have to verify proof of residency so long as the voter is registered.

"CLAIM: 'Election Observers should not assist [voters].' (Page 10)

"FACT: A voter can ask for assistance from anyone, including a poll watcher, so long as the voter initiates the request and does not engage in electioneering.

"I just found out that my friend Mona Reis, who owns an abortion clinic in West Palm Beach,Presidential Women's Center, has had her absentee ballot rejected by the county's canvassing board because:

"'Her signature on the ballot didn’t match the one on file in the elections office'

"According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, this is a quite frequent occurrence, and most people won't find out about it at all. Apparently, they just toss them and make no effort to contact the voter and let them know that their ballot has been invalidated. And, there seems to be no recourse. More below Mona's orange signature.

"Since Mona owns an abortion clinic and is passionate about women's and abortion rights, her vote is extremely important to her. She's considering immediate legal action.

"This is a nationwide problem as the above article elaborates:

While signature problems impact a relatively small number of votes, they illustrate the perils of casting absentee ballots, said Charles Stewart III, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In a report published last year, he estimated as many as 21 percent of absentee ballots requested nationwide never are counted. In the 2008 presidential election, 3.9 million of the 35.5 million ballots requested never reached voters. About 2.9 million that were received by voters never made it back to election offices. Another 800,000 were rejected for other reasons, such as signature problems and not being mailed in time.

"So, you can see where there might be some upcoming issue again with the vote counting in Florida and other states.

"UPDATE 11:50am: I just spoke with Mona and she confirmed that she hasn't heard back from a letter sent Monday to the Elections Board, and that as of now she is not allowed to vote in any manner. She affirmed that she will pursue any legal means of getting her vote counted. Apparently according to her, there is no means in Florida whereby a voter whose absentee ballot is rejected can correct the situation and vote. She added also that she's gotten many calls from friends who were planning on voting absentee, but will now tear up their absentee ballots and vote in person. (NOTE: Do not tear up your absentee ballot if you plan to vote in person. Take your absentee ballot with you to the polls so the pollworkers can see that it hasn't been used.)UPDATE 12:15pm:Palm Beach Women's Clinic Owner May Sue If She's Not Allowed to Vote

UPDATE 12:45pm: Just got the following statement from Mona Reis:

"'Believe it or not, there is NO other process that will allow for me to vote! I cannot vote in person, I cannot take an oath that my signature is really mine - end of story! It just so happened that I knew the reporter who was observing the process and she called me to tell me. What about all the other ballots that get disqualified and people only find out about it after the elections? After the 2000 butterfly ballot fiasco here, we were all told that the best way to guarantee that your vote counts is to vote by absentee! I want to vote, damn it! We are looking at taking some legal action. I am not giving up as this is such an outrage and needs to be changed! I want to vote because this is the most important election in my lifetime. I would never forgive myself if I didn't continue to try.'"

How much of a margin of votes will President Obama need to overcome the Conservative Bag of Dirty Tricks? Ten percent? Twenty?These three states aren't the only ones in which the Republican Party is trying to steal your vote, suspicions of further voter machine hacking abound, and the Conservatives' description as a "vast right-wing conspiracy" is absolutely on the mark.How else would you describe their actions as anything but acts of a conspiracy?The evidence is irrefutable that the GOP's masterminds, the Conservative capos and consiglieres bought and paid for by the greediest of our wealthy upper class, are behind one of the biggest criminal conspiracies in our history, if not the history of the world - and they are escaping punishment for their crimes due to our misapprehension that the GOP is merely a "political party," and not the criminal syndicate that it really is.